Gut viruses in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)is an autoimmune disease characterized by the production of autoantibodies targeting self-antigens and has a complex etiology including both genetic and environmental factors[1].Recently,alterations of the intestinal microbiota have received increasing attention[2]and efforts have begun to correct the dysbiotic environment to treat patients with SLE[3].However,besides bacteria,the microbiome contains other types of organisms including viruses which may infect both host cells and gut bacteria.It is accepted that elements of the micro-biome through interactions with intestinal non-lymphoid and lym-phoid cells account for the homeostasis of the immune system and the maintenance of gut physiology[4].Due to a series of technical obstacles,including the low representation of virus genomes in microbiome and the paucity of sufficient viral genome sequence database,disease-associated changes of the gut virome in SLE have remained under the radar although viruses have long been consid-ered as one of potent triggers of SLE[5].